


My Way or the Highway

by matimae



Category: 9-1-1: Lone Star (TV 2020)
Genre: Angst, Bleeding Out, Blood and Injury, Car Accidents, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Gun Violence, Gunshot Wounds, Held at Gunpoint, Hurt/Comfort, I will whump TK if no one else will, References to Drugs, Whump, Whumptober 2020, ambulance rides, enjoy him getting shot..again, manhandled
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-03
Updated: 2020-10-03
Packaged: 2021-03-07 16:01:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26760304
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/matimae/pseuds/matimae
Summary: TK and Owen are on a call, things get hairy when TK discovers something he wasn't supposed to.
Relationships: Carlos Reyes/TK Strand, Owen Strand & TK Strand
Comments: 14
Kudos: 156
Collections: Whumptober 2020





	My Way or the Highway

**Author's Note:**

> written for whumptober day no.3 (manhandled, held at gunpoint)

“Ma’am where are you located?” the 911 operator asked calmly into the receiver.

  
“I’m- I’m at the corner of Lincoln Boulevard and 7th...” the woman replied. “It’s not too bad, at least my car wasn’t hit too badly, I can’t seem to find the other driver...”

“You mean a hit and run?”

“No, no, the car’s still here...I just, don’t see the driver.”

“Alright ma’am I’m sending some people your way, you just sit tight, they’ll be with you shortly.”

…

TK and his father showed up at the scene of a 10-57, possible hit and run, to find both cars slightly propped on top of the curb.

“Okay TK, from what I heard the lady over the phone sounded fine, I’ll check her out while you look for the other driver? If he was hurt and delirious he may have wandered off.”

“Will do,” TK said as he hopped out of the fire truck, emergency bag slung over his shoulder.

TK opened the door of the abandoned car, did a quick pass, but it looked like the driver must have fled. He didn’t notice any blood, so that was a good sign? Still, TK was concerned why the driver would have just left, the crash was minimal, there was no real danger at the scene… He thrummed his fingers against the dashboard before standing up to leave the car. He started walking down the block, no real idea where he was going, just praying that he found the driver or at least a clue.

_Didn’t expect so much need for detective work, that was Carlos’s job anyway._

“Hello? I’m here to help!” TK called out as he turned the corner on the block, but he didn’t get a good look around before he was slammed into the alleyway wall.

TK was thrown down to his knees and felt a kick tipping him over onto his side.

_So, no longer his favorite type of call._

He looked up and saw the barrel of a gun staring him down.

_Nope, nope, nope, not his favorite at all._

“I’m unarmed! I’m no threat to you, everything is alright...” TK said with his hand up, willing the gunman down.

“No! Everything is not alright! Just...” the man thrust the gun in TK’s direction and TK was realizing now just how young he was. The kid was barely old enough to drive, nevertheless be throwing a gun around.

“Just...take a deep breath. We can get out of this.” TK really didn’t want to be the subject of the next news story, ‘taken out on the job’, ‘died a hero’... It was all bullshit. TK could see it already. But it didn’t have to come to that.

TK slowly stood up from his position on the ground, hands in defense the whole time. “So, why don’t you just lower that weapon...”

“No, no, you don’t understand! I had pot in that car! I’m already on parole as it is, I can’t get busted,” the kid’s voice broke.

“In the car?” TK was thinking out loud when it clicked, of course, this had something to do with the fender bender. _He had found the missing driver._

“It’s okay, you’re gonna be okay, just...relax.”

The kid shook his head, frustration and panic set in his eyes. “Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna be okay. You’re right. Cause you’re gonna come with me and make sure no one looks in my trunk and I get off completely free. Okay?”

He pushed the gun to TK’s back, directing him to walk in front of him. _Guess he had no real choice in the matter._

They slowly walk back to the site, TK tried to walk as nonchalant as possible, but it was hard not to stumble over his own two boots with a gun to his back.

“Dad,” TK nodded a greeting as they arrived back at the two cars. “found the driver. Checked him out,” TK avoided looking into anyone's eyes, he was the world's worst liar. “everything’s fine.”

Owen wasn’t fully buying it. Call it fatherly instincts, but he couldn’t help but feel concerned.

“Yup, the kid here is all good, just lost control of the car for a second. Accidents happen so fast,” said TK, trying to do his best to convince his Dad that everything was fine, through the steel-tipped gun still aimed between his shoulder blades.

Owen begins to nod and move on but he notices something in his son’s eyes.

Fear.

Mouth running dry he tried to figure out what was going on because despite what TK might be saying, everything was not fine. Something was off. And that is when he noticed the gun.

He caught the gleam of the reflection for just a moment but it was more than enough of a visual. 

It took every ounce of his being to stop himself from immediately jumping up and grab his son out of danger, he clenched his fist into a ball to avoid showing too much emotion in his face. If someone was pointing a gun at his boy, he had to do everything he could to get him out of this situation, alive. And the best way to do that was to not alert the guy with a gun that he knew that anything was wrong.

Still, it was hard to rework biology as a thick line of sweat dripped from his forehead.

“I need to...reevaluate the state of the other victim's concussion. TK, will you stay with…?” Owen trailed off, hardly giving TK a chance to nod a reply before leaving around the other side of the cars.

Finally out of earshot Owen crouched down behind the car, and pulled out his radio, “This is Fire Chief Strand, we have a distressed gunman, he has one of my men hostage-” at this point, Owen couldn’t even form the words, his shaky hand holding up his head. “please send back up…”

...

TK was willing to admit...he was freaking out. The sweat that was pooling under his arms and the small of his back was only a small indicator of the discomfort that he felt. He didn’t think that it would be this long, I mean he wasn’t thinking anything, but he thought for sure the teen would’ve booked it the moment that his Dad left.

But here they stood. Still. With the gun, albeit shaking, still aimed at his side. He almost audibly sighed when his Dad showed back up again, not that he could do much, but it just felt comforting to have him in eyesight.

He forced himself to take a deep breath and keep a straight face, staying calm was all he could do. Right? It looked like that’s what his Dad was doing, and TK was about 90% sure his Dad had seen the gun and hopefully called backup. He trusted him no matter what.

A startling ‘ _whoop whoop_ ’ of a distant siren shot TK’s already racing pulse to an impossibly high number, and apparently, it did the same to the teen behind him. Although TK was still facing away from him he could feel his hot breath against his neck become more rapid and panicky.

The sirens were getting closer and the kid was realizing that he was caught. He pulled the gun from TK and pointed at Owen, with panic set eyes he rotated the aim between TK and his father. “You called the cops? Why? I just? I just...” the teen’s presence was quickly morphing from panic to frustration as he turned back to TK.

“I trusted you! You told me everything would be fine! That I wouldn’t get in trouble!”

In another struggle as he was trying to push TK around again, Owen seized the opportunity that the gun was pointed down to run towards his son, in the midst of the commotion the gun was set off with an unexpected bang.

The three stumbled apart and Owen freezes when he sees TK’s side, dripping in blood.

TK’s knee’s buckled beneath him as he fell to the gravel, instinctively clutching his arm to his wound as if to will the blood to stop flowing.

“TK!” Owen screams, trying to run to his son, only stopped by the gunman who raised the weapon at him.

“Please...” Owen begged, inches from breaking down. “Just let me go to him,”

“No, I-I can’t go back..” he rapidly shook his head while keeping the gun trained on the Firefighter.

Owen had to just stand there, and watch his son bleed. “It’s going to be alright, TK, I’m right here,” every moment he couldn’t go to him ate away at his soul.

The sirens were just around the corner and two cop cars pulled up around the scene, they were here, guns outs, and ready to start firing.

“Nobody shoot! We already have wounded!” Owen hollered, trying to dismantle the situation before it became any worse.

“Kid, put the gun down! You’re surrounded. You still have a chance to make it out of here, and that’s by putting that down.” Owen ordered in his best ‘Dad’ voice, and something seemed to get through to him. He lowered the weapon.

The cops quickly remove the gun and put on handcuffs, one of the officers that arrived on the scene froze in his tracks. As Owen ran to TK he saw the officer was Reyes. Carlos Reyes, TK’s boyfriend.

Blood drained from Carlos’s face when he saw TK lay in the pool of his own blood that slowly ran up his father's knees.

Carlos took a step towards the two, TK was still sprawled across the ground, his head now resting in Owen’s lap as he held his son close to him.

“Paramedics are on their way,” Carlos said. It was all he could think to say. He still felt like he was frozen in place. It was stupid. He had seen people shot before. Hell, he had seen people die before. But this was TK. This was TK who was weakly gripping onto his father with a far too pale complexion, the light behind his eyes dimming by the second.

“TK, TK, you’re gonna be okay, okay? You’re gonna be fine. Just, stay with me...” Owen’s distressed voice pleaded with TK in his arms, but he could already feel him going limp in his arms.

“Dad...” TK’s body shook as his eye’s rolled to the back of his head and his head lulled to the side.

…

He looked so small against the hospital bed frame.

It reminded Owen of the time when TK was 13 and broke his arm, that was the first time he had to undergo surgery. Although then it was just minor, to set the bone properly. Now, the surgery he just came out of was more on the life or death side of the scale.

Owen should really call TK’s mother. But he couldn’t talk to her. Not now. Not when he didn’t have any good news to give. Not yet.

So, he would wait.

He told himself that it was just to protect her from getting hurt. Maybe it was just protecting himself. He couldn’t hold himself together for another debrief in TK’s situation.

…  
  


TK felt heavy. Very heavy. His eyelid were heavy, his arms were heavy, his legs were heavy, he wondered if someone hadn’t packed him full of sand and weighed him down.

“Hey, buddy,”

He knew that voice.

He was smiling before he even opened his eyes. “Dad.”

“I’m right here,” Owen started softly, grabbing his son’s hand in his own “and so are some of your friends.”

TK looked up to see Carlos and the whole crew from the firehouse. He laughed a throaty laugh. “Hey guys, you all came down to see me? All I got was just, another gunshot wound, you know...” TK tried to pass it himself off as a joke but Owen looked him dead in the eye.

“About that...I’m gonna start making you wear a bulletproof vest, kid.”

**Author's Note:**

> thanks for reading! <3


End file.
